Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno voices anger over 2-day power outage, 2nd major disruption of city utilities caused by same project

The Republican/DALE RUFFByron J. White, chef-owner of Pazzo Restaurant, stocks his refrigerators with food he had stored in a refrigerated trailer Friday during a power outage. The restaurant is adjacent to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on West Columbus Avenue.

SPRINGFIELD - Ice cream melted, food spoiled, air conditioners stayed silent and tempers heated up as parts of the city tried to cope with a two-day power outage that finally came to an end Friday night.

Crews from Western Massachusetts Electric Company restored power at about 7 p.m. Friday, after working through the night Thursday and all day Friday at the source of the outage at East Columbus Street and Emery Street.

The outage was caused at about noon Thursday when workers digging a trench for a fiber optic cable as part of a $31 million Massachusetts Highway Department telecommunications project damaged a major underground power line.

At its peak, 12,000 customers, roughly 20 percent of the city, was affected, primarily parts of the North and South ends, Forest Park, Old Hill and Upper Hill. That number was reduced, but for much of Friday between 5,000 and 6,000 customers remained off line.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, during a press conference with city officials Friday afternoon, thanked residents and business owners for their patience while at the same time expressed his own frustration.

Sarno, who came back early from vacation when he heard of the outage, voiced anger when he noted it was the second disruption of city utilities since May caused by problems with the same project.

In May, a different contractor digging a trench as part of the same project punched a hole in a water main by Exit 3 of Interstate 91, letting loose thousands of gallons of water that closed the highway and created a traffic nightmare in Springfield.

"Quite frankly, I'm outraged that this again has occurred in less than two months time," Sarno said.

Power outages impacting businesses, families around Springfield

The mayor said he is calling on the state to look into how each mishap happened. "We want a full investigation."

State Rep. Cheryl A. Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield, echoed his calls for a state investigation. She also called on Gov. Deval S. Patrick to reimburse residents and restaurants for the cost of all food that had to be thrown away.

"In these difficult economic times, it is unfair to expect our people to pay for the mistakes of others," she said.

Peter Clarke, WMECO president and chief operating officer, apologized for any inconvenience to customers from the outage.

"All of our efforts have been focused on getting the lights back on for our customers," he said.

The return of power brought relief in the city.

The Republican/DALE RUFFPazzo Restaurant stored food in a refrigerated trailer Friday during the power outage.

"I'm happy," said a relieved Patricia B. Triggs, of Greenleaf Street, when electricity was restored at her home.

"That's a long time (to lose power) when it's not an act of God," she said.

She said she and her husband spent the day driving from store to store, looking for ice, worrying about food in the refrigerator, and trying to get someone at the power company to tell them what was going on.

"It was really difficult to get information," she said. "I hope someone is held accountable for this."

During the outage, residents did their best during the day to stay cool amid the heat and humidity, while restaurant owners tallied the cost of what they said was a double whammy to the pocketbook.

No power means not only lost customers, but also tossed food. Without refrigeration, all perishable food had to be thrown away.

"It's a really tough thing to swallow," said Byron J. White, owner and chief chef at Pazzo Restaurant at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

"It's unfortunate that a lot of good food got wasted from all the restaurants on this site," he said.

White said some restaurants in the Hall of Fame complex were aided by the wholesale food distributor Sysco, which supplied several refrigerated trucks as substitute refrigerators.

For residents questioning their food supplies, city Health Director Helen R. Caulton-Harris cautioned that any perishable food left at room temperature for more than four hours should be thrown away. Frozen food inside a closed freezer can last for between 24 and 36 hours.

She said people may file claims for reimbursement with WMECO for any losses due to the outage.

Miguel A. Calderone of Juncos and Cayey Restaurant, 126 Walnut St., in the Six Corners neighborhood, said it was hard to turn people away.

"We are struggling in this economy," Calderone said "If there is no business, we can't pay the bills."

The restaurants were not the only businesses taking a financial hit. At the Hall of Fame, Christiane Stuuer and her 12-year-old son Bernhard, waited patiently in the lobby for the power to come back on so they could go inside and see the exhibits.

Tourists from Bonn, Germany, on a three-week vacation in America, they stopped for the day in Springfield just to bring her son to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

"He reads so much about basketball and talks so much about basketball that we are interested too," she said.

Springfield Police Sgt. John M. Delaney, aide to Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said police stepped up patrols overnight Thursday in the darkened areas to keep criminals from preying on businesses and homes left vulnerable without power for alarms.

"We made it through the night," he said. "That's when criminals think they have one over on us and we kind of circumvented that."

Police also worked at key intersections in the morning commute to keep traffic flowing, he said.

Ahearn said the repairs took so long both because of the extent of damage and the difficulty gaining access to the underground cables.

She said it is not at all like when a storm knocks down overhead power lines.

"It's very complex to make repairs to the underground system," she said.

Some parts of the city were affected and others not harmed due to the layout of power lines, she said.

"It's a function of the circuits coming out of the substations and who is fed by what circuits," she said.